Nuclear Energy Agency Online Bulletin

Covers new material for February 2004:

New publications
Legal affairs
Nuclear safety
Radiological protection
Data Bank

New publications

Benchmark on the Three-dimensional VENUS-2 MOX Core Measurements
Final Report
ISBN 92-64-02160-4. 204 pages (3.8 mb).

CSNI Technical Opinion Papers – No. 4
Human Reliability Analysis in Probabilistic Safety Assessment for Nuclear Power Plants
ISBN 92-64-02157-4. 16 pages (70 kb).

Disponible également en français :
Avis techniques du CSIN – n° 4
L'évaluation probabiliste de la fiabilité humaine dans les centrales nucléaires
ISBN 92-64-02158-2. 17 pages (92 ko).

Evolution of the System of Radiological Protection
Asian Regional Conference, Tokyo, Japan, 24-25 October 2002
ISBN 92-64-02163-9. 111 pages (1.1 mb).

The Handling of Timescales in Assessing Post-closure Safety
Lessons Learnt from the April 2002 Workshop in Paris, France
ISBN 92-64-02161-2. 51 pages (457 kb).

Disponible également en français :
Gestion des échelles de temps dans l'évaluation de la sûreté en phase post-fermeture
Enseignements tirés de l'atelier d'avril 2002 à Paris, France
ISBN 92-64-02162-0. 52 pages (819 ko)

Legal affairs

Revised Nuclear Third Party Liability Conventions Improve Victims' Rights to Compensation

The signing of the Protocols to amend the Paris Convention on Third Party Liability in the Field of Nuclear Energy and the Brussels Convention Supplementary to the Paris Convention took place on 12 February 2004 at OECD headquarters. The revised Conventions allow for a considerable increase in the amount of compensation available to victims of a nuclear accident and for the expansion of the scope of application of the Paris Convention.

OECD Nuclear Energy Agency
Håkan Rustand, Swedish Justice Chancellor and Chair of the Contracting Parties of the Paris Convention signs the Final Act of the Conference watched by Donald Johnston, OECD Secretary-General (left) and Luis Echávarri, NEA Director-General (right). To Mr. Johnston's right is Patrick Reyners, NEA Head of Legal Affairs. Looking on are NEA staff members Julia Schwartz and Jack Radisch.

The most important features of the revised Paris Convention include an increase in the nuclear operator's liability amount to a new minimum of €700 million. In addition, the minimum liability amount applicable to low-risk installations and transport activities will climb to €70 million and €80 million respectively.

The most important feature of the revised Brussels Supplementary Convention is a substantial increase in the three tiers of compensation under the Convention. The first tier, corresponding to the minimum liability requirement under the Paris Convention, jumps to €700 million and continues to be provided by the operator's financial security, failing which it must be provided by the installation State from public funds. More information is available at www.oecd-nea.org/news/2004/2004-01.html.

Related links

Full text of the revised Conventions
Photos from the signing ceremony
NEA Legal Affairs programme


Nuclear safety

A conference on the Fatigue of Reactor Components will be held on 3-6 October 2004 in Seville, Spain. The effective management of fatigue is important to both the safe operation of plant components during day-to-day functioning and in the planning of long-term operation. More information is available at www.oecd-nea.org/nsd/workshops/fatig2004/index.html.

Related links

Documents from the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI)
Documents from the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA)
Forthcoming workshops and seminars


Radiological protection

A new expert group to examine the practical aspects of the regulatory process of radiological protection "authorisation", the EGRA, has been created by the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH). The EGRA will discuss procedural aspects which will allow all radiological protection questions to be addressed within a single, coherent concept and process. This avoids the constraining use of such current concepts and terminology as "practice", "intervention", "exclusion", "exemption" and "clearance". The expert group met for the first time on 5-6 February 2004 and will publish a report on the subject in 2005. More information is available at www.oecd-nea.org/rp/egra.html.


Data Bank

Thermochemical Database (TDB) project

The management board of Phase III of the TDB project met on 17-18 February 2004 at OECD headquarters. The management board considered the various options for the programme of work for the period 2004-2007 on the basis of the exploratory work carried out in 2003. This work examined the literature on chemical thermodynamics for inorganic compounds and complexes of thorium, iron, tin and molybdenum and on the evaluation of chemical thermodynamic data for solid solutions. More information on the TDB project is available at www.oecd-nea.org/dbtdb/.

Computer program services

A page listing all new programs in the last 12 months can be found at: www.oecd-nea.org/tools/abstract/new.

25-FEB-2004 NEA-1424 ZZ FSXJ32, MCNP nuclear data library based on JENDL-3.2
ZZ FSXLIBJ33, MCNP nuclear data library based on JENDL-3.3
(Tested)
25-FEB-2004 NEA-1507 WIMSD5, Deterministic Multi-group Reactor Lattice Calculations
(Tested)
25-FEB-2004 NEA-1492 NUCLEUS-CHART, Interactive Chart of Nuclides
(Tested)
20-FEB-2004 NEA-0919 SRIM-2003, Stopping Power and Range of Ions in Matter
(Arrived)
19-FEB-2004 ESTS1145 PCX, Interior-Point Linear Programming Solver
(Tested)
18-FEB-2004 NEA-1715 IRPHE-JAPAN, Reactor Physics Experiments carried out in Japan
(Arrived)
18-FEB-2004 IAEA1411 NAAPRO, Neutron Activation Analysis Prognosis and Optimisation code
(Arrived)
12-FEB-2004 NEA-1517 SINBAD Reactor, Shielding Benchmark Experiments
(Arrived)
04-FEB-2004 NEA-1707 ZZ MATXSLIBJ33,JENDL-3.3 based,175 N-42 photon groups (VITAMIN-J) MATXS library for discrete ordinates multi-group
(Arrived)

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